GRUNK

The Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK) was the royalist government-in-exile of Cambodia which existed from 1970 to 1976, led by Norodom Sihanouk. The government was based on the FUNK coalition of the royalist Sangkum regime and the communist Khmer Rouge forces, which were united in opposition to the US-backed Khmer Republic regime. The GRUNK was headquartered in Beijing, China, and GRUNK was backed by China and North Vietnam during the Cambodian Civil War. The Khmer Rouge formed the majority of GRUNK's military, using their alliance with Sihanouk to bolster their numbers from 4,000 in 1968 to 70,000 in 1975, attracting the support of the highly royalist and conservative peasantry. In 1973, as GRUNK forces made great progress in taking over Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge silently began to purge Sihanouk's supporters from the movement, purging local officials and military commanders in "liberated" zones and cadres with strong links to North Vietnam and indoctrinating the Khmer Rouge fighters with Maoism and against the "feudalist" regime of Sihanouk and against the Vietnamese interlopers. In 1975, the GRUNK forces captured Phnom Penh and created the new Democratic Kampuchea regime, installing Sihanouk as the figurehead monarch while Communist Party of Kampuchea leader Pol Pot held real power. In 1976, during the Cambodian Genocide, most of Sihanouk's remaining supporters, including his cousin Norodom Phurissara, were tortured and killed at "re-education" centers, and GRUNK dissolved as a result. Sihanouk later founded FUNCINPEC to oppose the Khmer Rouge regime.